What works can be protected by copyright?

There are two initial requirements to protect a work as a copyright - it must be an original expression and it must be fixed in a tangible medium.

As for what types of work can be protected, the Copyright Act defines eight broad categories. These eight categories are not exclusive, and every once in a while something come up which does not fall neatly within one of these categories - when this happens, the courts will typically address the issue.